The invention relates to an apparatus for the excision and removal of blocks from a stock of silage, having a frame to which prongs are fastened parallel to one another, and a knife which is fastened to a cutting mechanism which can be driven as a carriage along a U-shaped track at a distance corresponding approximately to the length of the knife above a plane formed by the prongs.
Such an apparatus has been disclosed in German Pat. No. 2,307,689. With this known apparatus, the block of feed is taken from the silage stock, carried through a cow stable and set down in front of the feed troughs. The distribution of the feed to the individual troughs is then performed by hand. This entails a great amount of manual labor.
It is the object of the invention to eliminate this disadvantage of the state of the art and to create an apparatus of the kind described above whereby the feed can be distributed without manual labor after the removal of the block of silage.
This object is achieved in accordance with the invention in an apparatus of the kind described above in that behind the prongs a silage box is disposed whose front side is open and whose rear side is in the form of a scraper flight conveyor, and which has a lateral outfeed opening for the silage, and that the entire apparatus can be tilted back by 90 degrees after the block of feed has been excised, so that then the scraper flight conveyor forms the bottom side of the silage box.
To pull the excised block of silage all the way into the feed box and prevent silage losses during transportation, it is advantageous that a stripper encompassing the prongs be present at the front edge of the feed box, and that the prongs be retractable through the stripper.
The stripper advantageously slopes towards the open side of the feed box.
An embodiment of the invention will be further explained below in conjunction with the drawing, wherein: